# T/Maker > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/T/Maker > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/T/Maker.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%2FMaker > Source revision: 1258335895 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) **T/Maker** (Table Maker) was one of the first [spreadsheet](/source/Spreadsheet) programs designed for the personal computer user[3] and released by [Peter Roizen](/source/Peter_Roizen) in 1979. The application ran on [CP/M](/source/CP/M), [TRSDOS](/source/TRSDOS), and later on [MS-DOS](/source/MS-DOS) computers. T/Maker was originally distributed by [Lifeboat Associates](/source/Lifeboat_Associates) of New York. T/Maker took a different approach to most other spreadsheets: instead of embedding formulas in each cell, formulas were defined on a per-row and per-column basis in the margins.[4] Although T/Maker was released six months after [VisiCalc](/source/VisiCalc), it was perhaps[vague] the first application to provide an 'office' suite approach to data. Tables could be used in databases or spreadsheets and were accessible in 'word' type documents. ## T/Maker Company The T/Maker Company was an early [personal computer](/source/Personal_computer) software company, formed in 1983 in order to market [CP/M](/source/CP/M) and [MS-DOS](/source/MS-DOS) programs that had originally been published by 3rd party publishing houses. They expanded into the [Apple Macintosh](/source/Macintosh) market, releasing the ClickArt line of [clip art](/source/Clip_art). Other products included [WriteNow](/source/WriteNow) on the Mac and [NeXT](/source/NeXT) platforms. In 1983 T/Maker Company was incorporated in [Mountain View, California](/source/Mountain_View,_California) by [Heidi Roizen](/source/Heidi_Roizen) – [Peter](/source/Peter_Roizen)'s sister and a then-recent [Stanford University Graduate School of Business](/source/Stanford_University_Graduate_School_of_Business) graduate – who became its CEO.[1] T/Maker Company went on to publish its own line of integrated applications, and also products by others intended for DOS and Windows computers as well as the [Apple](/source/Apple_Inc.) Macintosh, including ClickArt, the fifth software title available for the Mac. It was also one of the first companies to offer fonts for the Macintosh.[1] By 1988, it no longer sold the product of its namesake, T/Maker.[1] Other notable T/Maker products include Personal Publisher, a consumer-oriented desktop publishing application for the PC (acquired by [Software Publishing Corporation](/source/Software_Publishing_Corporation) in 1986), SmartBundle, an "office" styled bundle of major applications, Vroombooks, a multimedia storybook, and the Macintosh word processor [WriteNow](/source/WriteNow), (which it licensed from NeXT in 1985 and ultimately sold to [WordStar](/source/WordStar) in 1993[5]). Heidi and business partner/chairman Royal Farros purchased T/Maker from Peter in 1986 and continued [bootstrapping](/source/Bootstrapping_(finance)) until 1989, when it became [venture capital](/source/Venture_capital) firm [Hummer Winblad Venture Partners](/source/Hummer_Winblad_Venture_Partners)’ first venture investment. [Ann Winblad](/source/Ann_Winblad) became a director of the company at that time. [Tim Draper](/source/Tim_Draper) of Draper Fisher led the company’s second round in 1993 and also joined the board. T/Maker was acquired in 1994 by [Deluxe Corporation](/source/Deluxe_Corporation).[2] Both Heidi and Royal left the company in 1996, Heidi becoming VP of Worldwide Developer Relations at Apple Computer and Royal founding and becoming CEO of an online print shop, [iPrint.com](/source/IPrint.com). T/Maker’s remaining products were ultimately acquired by [Broderbund](/source/Broderbund), who continues to market and expand the ClickArt line. ## References 1. Borrell, Jerry (January 1988). ["An interview with Heidi Rozen, President of T/Maker"](https://archive.org/details/eu_Macworld-1988-01_OCR/page/n74/mode/1up). *[Macworld](/source/Macworld)*. Vol. 5, no. 1. p. 73. 1. ["T/Maker Acquired"](https://archive.org/details/MacWorld_9409_Sept_1994/page/n33/mode/2up). *[Macworld](/source/Macworld)*. Vol. 11, no. 9. September 1994. p. 33. Retrieved 12 August 2021. 1. Lammers, Susan M (1986). [*Programmers at Work*](https://archive.org/details/programmersatwor00lamm_0/page/198/mode/2up). [Microsoft Press](/source/Microsoft_Press). p. 198. ISBN 0914845713. The [Visicalc](/source/Visicalc) spreadsheet program was released while T/Maker was still under development. 1. Petern McWilliams (1985-01-13). ["Software That's Truly Easy To Use"](https://www.chicagotribune.com/1985/01/13/software-thats-truly-easy-to-use/). *[Chicago Tribune](/source/Chicago_Tribune)*. Retrieved 2016-06-24. 1. ["WordStar Buys WriteNow"](https://archive.org/details/MacUser9306June1993/page/n37/mode/2up). *[MacUser](/source/MacUser_(US_edition))*. Vol. 9, no. 6. June 1993. p. 35. Retrieved 12 August 2021. ## External links - [Broderbund official website](http://www.broderbund.com) - [Peter Roizen official website](http://roizen.com/peter/) - [Heidi.roizen.com](http://www.heidi.roizen.com) - [T/Maker Five website](http://tmaker.site/) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [T/Maker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%2FMaker) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%2FMaker?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.